


other than icecream

by 23notecanon (epistaxiophilia)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 21:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20234650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epistaxiophilia/pseuds/23notecanon
Summary: happy 8/13. my prompt was 'instead of ice cream, let's have hot chocolate'





	other than icecream

A dreary morning awakens Roxas to the sound of thunder and water pouring down the window to the side of his bed. Bleary eyes peering outside past sheer curtains to darkened sky and clouds, obscuring his estimation on how late it was into the morning, but as he looks to his clock and sees ’11:00’, Roxas slides out of bed with a disgruntled mumbling. As he wanders down the hall, seems like everyone had woken up early but him.

“Hey sleepy,” Axel immediately taunts him as he wanders down the stairs and into the kitchen, the taller man already dressed and sipping luke-warm coffee with his phone in the opposite hand.

Still in his pjs, a blue long-sleeved top and white boxers, and with a stifled yawn, “Why no wake-up call for me?”

“I dunno,” sip sip, he levels an amused teal gaze on his sleepy friend, “I poked my head in and saw you all laying there dead asleep, thought I wouldn’t bother.”

Shrugging as he walks to the table, Roxas sits down beside Axel, folding his arms under his chin as he stares with sleepy but vibrant blue eyes. He looks up at him softly while he muses a thought, “I guess the sound of rain is comforting.”

“Oh yeah? It doesn’t rain very often in Twilight Town, at least I don’t think it does,” Axel hums, tilting his head as he thinks about it, and then looks towards the window, to the lines of water that trail down its surface in heavy droplets.

Muffled from his forearms, Roxas gaze follows to the window and the patters of rain, “No, but it did a lot in the World that Never Was.”

“Oh, ha, yeah I guess it did! Darn though, we were supposed to go out today. Get ice cream or whatever. Guess those plans are going on the backburner,” Axel shrugs, elbows resting against the wooden table while palms prop up his head.

Roxas gaze finds itself back to Axel, letting a few quiet seconds pass as the others teal eyes remain occupied with each drip that patters against glass. An air of vacancy overtaking his thoughts when his mind drifts to where rain used to fall in droves like this. Roxas speaks to interrupt the presumably depressing memories, “Sorry that I’m nostalgic for any part of that place.”

Shaking his head from his thoughts, Axel looks back to Roxas, eyebrows furrowing in apology, “Ah- no, it’s fine! You did, like, technically ‘grow up’ there. And the rain was nice!... Y’know, sometimes. When we didn’t have to go stand out in it.”

Sitting back up, Roxas stretches his arms over his head with another yawn, “I mean, standing in the rain wasn’t that bad….”

“Well, if you had a jacket, and you put the hood up…”

With the idea in his mind, Roxas pushes up from his chair with a loud scoot of wooden legs across tile floor, perking Axel’s eyebrow curiously. Still in his pjs, he heads towards the hall, before Axel interrupts still sitting, “What- where are you going, you aren’t even dressed-“

“I wanna go stand in the rain,” he tilts back from the hallway entrance, giving Axel a tired, flat look.

Eyebrows still furrowed, but he doesn’t move to stop him. Axel finds the two ‘new’ somebodies like to enjoy experiences firsthand rather than hear about them, and its not like being wet is really going to hurt him. Just maybe be a regret later. Nothing a firey Axel couldn’t fix later. Still…. “You’re gonna get real cold, real quick in your pjs.”

“Well,” he shrugs up his shoulders, gestures wide with one hand, “if I change into my clothes, and then get my clothes wet, then I’ll just be changing again. So, I might as well just get these wet,” he tugs at a light blue sleeve.

“Ohh, you’ve thought this over then. Alright!” Axel also stands, shuffling towards the door- because he’s not going to miss Roxas getting himself drenched.

Continuing towards outside, Roxas lingers at the open doorway, musing the wet outside world. There’s a distant rumble of thunder that gets a flinch out of Axel, but leaves Roxas unphased as the lightning glitters the sky. Just as Axel is about to say something to question his decision, a bare foot steps into the puddle outside their door and pads softly over the cobbled steps to more than damp grass, mud settling cold between his toes.

As expected, he’s soaked within seconds, but to Axel’s surprise as he replaces Roxas at the doorway, his friend doesn’t make any effort to skitter back defeatedly into the house. Instead, he slowly looks up to the sky, humming a bemused tone as he blinks raindrops from his vision. A shiver sets down his spine however, and after around a minute of this, Roxas posture shrinks and, albeit delayed, he shuffles back towards Axel at the doorway, the latter unable to contain his look of amusement to Roxas’ antics. “What did I tell you!” He takes a step backwards inside, slightly wettened even just standing there in the doorway, and making room for Roxas to become out of the downpour.

“N-no, I know w-what you said,” as he stands there shivering for the moment, before shaking the water ineffectually out of his hair and onto Axel, “it w-was honestly less c-cold than the World that Never Was rain.”

Axel squeaks at the droplets that do manage to flick off Roxas’ head, holding up his palms defensively, “Ahk! You still _look_ cold, though,” and he reaches over with one of those defensive hands to rub through the still somewhat spikey wet locks, setting the gentlest fire in his hands just for a pillar of warmth- Roxas can’t help but lean into the warm touch, and Axel settles his hand on the back of his neck as he drips water into the front door hall.

Definitely still cold, and dripping, so Roxas opts to pull his wet shirt off his torso. A moments thought, Roxas blinks up at Axel vacantly with the wet shirt balled up in his hands, who replies to that look with a tone of confusion, until it turns shrill when his shorter friend tosses the drenched fabric up and over his head, before strolling back up the stairs and to his room.

“Why!?” Axel pulls it back off his head, but it’s too late, a layer of wet cast over his hair and shoulders; he hangs it over a coat rack to dry.

Shouting back down to him as he presumably changes, “You looked like you missed the rain!” and he returns downstairs with new pants, no shirt, and a towel draped over his head.

“Well? Did_ you_ actually miss it?” Axel heads back into the kitchen, giving Roxas a soft look over his shoulder as the other’s blue gaze remains somewhat vacantly on the floor, and tucked beneath his towel like an all too familiar hood.

“Mnnn…” Roxas rocks on his heels, following close behind Axel as the other man finds his seat and cold coffee once more, “I think I did,” he nods, “but more complicated than that… Can I be nostalgic for something bad?”

“Hmnnn,” Axel rubs his chin, scooting out a chair for Roxas to sit on close beside him and exuding warmth; even with his change of clothes and a towel, it’s fair to say Roxas is still both wet and cold. “I think so. Or maybe there’s a different word for it- but I don’t know it, so if you want to say you’re nostalgic for it, I know what you mean.”

“Now I’m too cold for ice cream,” Roxas sighs, sitting down in the offered seat with a leg pressed to Axel’s, once again folding his arms over the tables surface and setting his face down on forearms. Muffled now, “I probably shouldn’t just go back to bed.” He’s still tired, and nearly didn’t come back downstairs once he sat down on his bed for a minute, but didn’t want to waste Axel’s effort making him come up to get him.

“Nope, probably not.”

“Where are Isa and Xion?”

“They went out earlier before it started pouring, suspect they’re gonna lay low somewhere while it’s storming, come home a bit later.”

His head leans up just enough to give him a very bad wink, and a point of his finger, “Just us.”

“It’s been a while,” Axel exhales a laugh, leaning back in his chair with arms thrown behind his head. “Weelllll… we can’t have ice cream. Well,_ I_ could, but I wont for your sake. How about we try something else sweet?”

Blinking, Roxas sits up enough to peer up at him curiously, “Yeah? Like what?”

“Bought some hot chocolate from the duck a little while ago, it’s expensive stuff,” he rises from his chair to Roxas’ distaste, because the warmth of his thigh escapes his touch.

“… Hot chocolate?” He peruses his given and stolen memories for a moment, but nothing really comes up. Guessing, though, it’s chocolate, and, it’s perhaps hot.

“Oh, yeah it’s like.. powder, and you put it in hot water. Or milk, if you’re feeling festive, which I am,” giving him a wink, Axel pilfers through the fridge for aforementioned milk, before setting to his task of hot chocolate making, clattering around the kitchen.

“Oh, it’s a drink,” Roxas nods mostly to himself, rubbing his hair in his towel hood before opting to pull it over his shoulders to watch Axel work in curious interest.

“I can’t believe you never had any, even at the castle! I feel like we must’ve once… maybe not with you, though… And I guess everyone else was more of a coffee drinker.

Roxas wrinkles his nose to coffee, sticking out a tongue in distaste, “It’s like coffee?”

“_No_, it’s not like coffee, not bitter at all. In fact, usually you’ll put the hot chocolate in your coffee to make it less gross.”

“And yet, you drink coffee every morning.”

Axel stands there for a absent moment, blinking slowly as he contemplates his life. “You should feel lucky you never started drinking coffee to know my pain. Also- this is how I wake up earlier than you every day,” he leans over just enough to ruffle his hair again, using the length of his arms to remain out of fighting distance.

It doesn’t stop Roxas from trying, swatting towards his body but missing spectacularly, “Hey, you’re the one that keeps drinking it!”

“It’s impossible to stop! It would be like… like, like asking you to stop eating ice cream.”

“… But ice cream tastes good!”

“Yeah- but the sugar isn’t good for you!”

“You eat ice cream AND drink coffee.”

“Alright, alright! What can I say, I’m a man with his vices!” Leaning over with a mug in both hands, he offers the sitting Roxas one set before him, leaning to press his face into the now barely wet hair to the top of his head, offering a warm, affectionate nuzzle, before sitting down himself. “Let it cool down a minute before you start slurping.”

He stares down at the beverage, even offering it an inspective sniff- well, it smells like chocolate, and the way its steaming, it smells like ‘hot’ too. “Well, why’d you make it too hot to drink, then?”

“I mean, you gotta boil the milk…” Which he’d done earlier, only letting some of it spill over and onto the stove from his pot.

“You coulda less boiled it…” Roxas eyes to the side discerningly, but a smile creeping across his features.

“You gotta boil the milk! Or the powder doesn’t like, mix properly, and you get big gross clumps you gotta CHEW, but when you chew them the powder breaks apart into sludge in your mouth.”

“That sounds kinda good actually.”

“Trust me, buddy- it’s not good.”

Pushing their chairs together again, Roxas finds himself pressed to Axel’s warmth, even leaning down on his arm as he still somewhat sleepily stares at his cooling hot chocolate. With a soft sigh, Axel takes a step forwards and wraps an arm around the back of his shoulders, a thumb rubbing affectionately over his bare shoulder. “We’ve got lots of time now to try all sorts of things,” Roxas hums, leaning towards Axel’s chest to mumble into his shirt.

“Yeahp,” Axel nods, glancing at the window once more, “all the time in the world.”

“I still missed the rain.”

“You’re allowed to.”

“I think that’s why I slept in so bad. I remembered the sound of the storms….” He hums, eyes lidding at he peruses the old memories of his technical home.

“I’d take you back to visit, if we could.”

“Would it make me feel better?”

“No, maybe not… But it might make you feel… clarity.”

Nestling down into his side, Roxas sneaks a hand around Axel’s front as they sit there in relative silence to listen to the rain once more. It’s not exactly winding down, but it isn’t getting any worse, the thunders rumbling fading off into the distance. Roxas has no gauge for when an appropriate amount of time has passed to cool his offered beverage, but he reaches out his unoccupied hand to snag the mug and give it a few experimental sips as Axel watches in interested curiosity.

Just above the rim of the mug, “It’s sure does taste like chocolate that is hot.”

“That’s it? I spent good money on that powder! It’d be lame if it was just boring.”

Sip sip. “It’s still too hot, I’m mostly just tasting my tongue burning.”

“-Pfft- then stop drinking it! Stop being impatient.”

“But I want to try it now… So, you’ll know if I like it,” tilting his head up, he stares up at Axel with wide, puppy eyes.

Frowning back down at him, “There’s no rush!” Reaching over, he grasps Roxas wrist to coax the mug back down onto the table.

“I like ice cream better.”

“Well, think about how if you eat ice cream too fast, you’ll get a headache.”

Shrugging, he nods in agreement, putting the mug back down. “It’s not bad. Maybe if I wasn’t warming up sitting almost in your lap I would like it better.”

Axel exhales a laugh, leaning to settle his face into Roxas’ hair again to mumble to the top of his head, “You don’t feel so cold anymore, you don’t have to sit in my lap.”

Shoving back at him with an elbow, but Roxas doesn’t move, “You kickin’ me out?”

“No, definitely not.” Though Roxas does feel the temperature dropping a few degrees as Axel settles down his internal blaze.

Still settled into his side, and Axel settled nuzzled into his hair, “Thank you, Axel. It does taste good... And, for letting me go stand in the rain.”

“You’re welcome.”

**Author's Note:**

> im really aro but i try hard ok


End file.
